[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.0.91″ custom_padding=”0px|0px|0px|0px” next_background_color=”#000000″][et_pb_row custom_padding=”0px|0px|0px|0px” _builder_version=”3.0.47″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_image admin_label=”Top Image” _builder_version=”3.0.101″ show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”on” force_fullwidth=”off” show_bottom_space=”on” src=”http:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/airportP5W_BD.jpg”]<\/p>\n
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Columbia Metropolitan Airport is trying to boost business by enticing other low-cost airlines to come to the city.<\/p>\n
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After five years of growth, Columbia Metropolitan Airport saw a decrease in passengers for most of 2017.<\/p>\n
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Columbia Metropolitan Airport spokesman Anthony Gilmer says airports in Charlotte, Charleston and Myrtle Beach are doing so well is because they have more flights to major U.S. cities than Columbia.<\/p>\n
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After seeing a decrease in passengers for most of 2017, officials with the Columbia Metropolitan Airport say they are ready to build off their late upswing in business late last year in order to thrive in 2018 and beyond.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just a process that takes time, we\u2019ve seen a lot of improvement in our fares really just since October,\u201d Anthony Gilmer, the\u00a0air service and marketing manager for the Columbia Metropolitan Airport, said.<\/p>\n
For this year, Gilmer said the airport is trying to get more non-stop flights to major cities across the U.S.\u00a0and keep the increase in business going.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur goal is growth,” Gilmer said.<\/p>\n
“Whether that\u2019s more flights to places we already have flights to,<\/strong> or bigger airplanes on the flights we already have or new airlines, we\u2019re pursuing all that pretty aggressively.\u201d<\/p>\n The Columbia Metropolitan Airport is trying to court airlines like Allegiant and Spirit with\u00a0stipends worth up to $500,000 over two years to work with them.<\/p>\n The decline in passengers had to do with airlines\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>increasing their fares, Gilmer said. The reasoning behind this was for\u00a0airlines to try and \u201cget as much revenue as they possibly can,\u201d according to Gilmer.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the kind of place where sometimes they do a little experiment, see if they can charge a little bit more and still get to the same amount of people to fly,\u201d Gilmer said.<\/p>\n Gilmer says being in \u201cconstant communication\u201d with the airlines they have, as well as other airlines they wish to take on, is how they stay up to date with their business.<\/p>\n The airport\u2019s plan for the future is to rely on Columbia\u2019s successful market for low-cost\u00a0carriers and try to keep the same business model before the raise in fares.<\/p>\n \u201cOur costs for them to operate are relatively low, and really competitive with surrounding airports and airports all across the country. So for the airlines operationally this is an easy affordable, good market to serve, so we intend to keep being that,\u201d Gilmer said.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.0.91″ custom_padding=”0px|0px|0px|0px” next_background_color=”#000000″][et_pb_row custom_padding=”0px|0px|0px|0px” _builder_version=”3.0.47″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_image admin_label=”Top Image” _builder_version=”3.0.101″ show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”on” force_fullwidth=”off” show_bottom_space=”on” src=”http:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/airportP5W_BD.jpg”] [\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row custom_padding=”2px|0px|8px|0px” _builder_version=”3.0.47″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Top Image caption” _builder_version=”3.0.101″ text_font=”|600|||||||” text_font_size=”12px” background_layout=”light”] Columbia Metropolitan Airport is trying to boost business by enticing other low-cost airlines to come to the city. [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":3677,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[42,39],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3142"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3142"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8716,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3142\/revisions\/8716"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}